Computers are used to conduct business, acquire information, and experience entertainment by visiting sites on the internet. Unfortunately, some internet sites are designed to accomplish actions that are not requested by a user. These actions can result in harm to a computer and/or to the user of the computer.
Malware is one term for software that can cause harm to a user. For example, malware may report relatively innocuous generic marketing-related information and/or reduce the performance of a computer in which it has been installed. However, malware can also damage or even destroy data files on a computer. Moreover, and perhaps most dangerously, malware can also be used to steal valuable personal or financial information.
Malware may be installed without a user's knowledge, or the full extent of a malware program's functionality may be unknown to a user when installation is authorized. In any case, malware is typically software that a user would ultimately rather not have present, functional, or executing on his or her computer because of the attendant risks. Consequently, internet sites that wish to install malware have developed convoluted and secretive mechanisms for doing so without full knowledge of the user and even without first acquiring any authorization from a user.